The Rochester District Golf Association is pleased to announce our annual list of Player of the Year honorees, recognizing the top amateur players in the District in six categories from the 2020 season. Honorees were named in the following categories: Men’s, Women’s, Men’s Senior, Boy’s Junior, Girl’s Junior – and the newly-created Women’s Senior.
Typically, RDGA Player of the Year honors are determined by a point system, based on a player’s order of finish in several top local, regional, state and national tournaments. However, because of the unique nature of the 2020 golf season in which many state and national events were cancelled due to concerns regarding COVID-19, this year’s RDGA Player of the Year awards were determined by a vote taken among a select panel of local golf community leaders.
Following an active discussion regarding the merits of many RDGA Player of the Year contenders – as well as a number of votes and re-votes, including two award categories deadlocked in ties at one point – we present the following players as the recipients of the 2020 RDGA Players of the Year awards:
RDGA Men’s Player of the Year: Tom Linehan
Linehan won the 54-hole RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial at Brook-Lea Country Club in July, then two weeks later returned to Brook-Lea (which happens to be his home club) to win the 36-hole Brook-Lea Amateur, one of the area’s top men’s amateur championships. Finishing in a close second place in the voting was Yarik Merkulov, who won the RDGA’s Men’s Match Play Championship, and played in the U.S. Amateur Championship by special invitation from the USGA.
Women’s Player of the Year: Julia Zigrossi
Zigrossi, a 15-year-old Ridgemont Country Club member from Spencerport, won virtually all local junior girls championships in 2020, including the RDGA Girls Junior Championship, the Monroe County Girls High School Tournament of Champions and the Section V Girls High School title – but one of her most impressive accomplishments was winning the RDGA Women’s Championship at Brook-Lea against many of the area’s top women’s amateurs. Finishing in a close second was Monroe Golf Club’s Tammy Blyth – winner of the 2019 RDGA Women’s Player of the Year award – who won the WRDGA Women’s District Championship at Sodus Bay Heights Golf Club.
Men’s Senior Player of the Year: Jim Scorse
Scorse, winner of multiple RDGA titles through the years, including five RDGA District Championships, captured a title he has never won before in 2020 – the RDGA Wilson Fitch Men’s Senior Championship – in his first year of eligibility at age 55. The Stafford Country Club member won the RDGA Senior crown on his home course – then later in the season, finished in a tie for 8th in the RDGA Mid Amateur.
Women’s Senior Player of the Year: Tammy Blyth
In the newest RDGA Player of the Year category, created this year, Blyth earned recognition for her victories in the WRDGA DIstrict Championship at Sodus Bay Heights, as well as teaming up with Kitty Colliflower to win the women’s Gross Score title in the RDGA Richard Wood Senior Best Ball. Finishing in second was Cindy Glitzer, winner of the WRDGA Senior Championship title.
Boys Junior Player of the Year: John Mittiga
In one of the closest voting categories of the year, in which three players were within one vote, Mittiga earned the Junior Boys Player of the Year nod on the strength of two victories in which he competed against top men golfers: the RDGA District Championship Qualifier at Chili Country Club and the Western New York Open – a Western New York PGA Section event in which he posted a lower score than PGA Professionals in the field. Also close in the Junior Boys voting was Mason Rivera, the RDGA Boys Junior Champion, and Philip Minnehan, winner of the RDGA Junior Invitational.
Girls Junior Player of the Year: Julia Zigrossi
Having attracted the notice of Player of the Year voters for her victory in the RDGA Women’s Championship, Zigrossi was a natural choice for her many Junior accomplishments in 2020 – including the RDGA Girls Junior Championship and the Section V Girls High School Championship, as well as several wins in national Junior Scoreboard-ranked events.
Although there was lively, informed discussion regarding the merits of all candidates throughout the voting system to determine RDGA Players of the Year in 2020, the RDGA will look to adopt a new point-based Player of the Year system prior to the 2021 season.
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